How to mask circular or cylindrical 3D text with geometry & material options?

Question

Hello, guys, I am back to trying to rotate that text around that planet in After Effects CS6.
I am making one basic assumption — please correct me if I am wrong. (I'm sure you will !) I understand that I cannot have two 3D objects (or in this case, two 2D objects with 3d effects applied) in the same "scene" (as it is called in Photoshop.) In other words, I cannot have the planet and the orbiting text in the same layer, so that the planet naturally masks out the back side of the orbiting text. I am limited to having the planet on one layer and the text on another, correct?
My goal: to make some shiny, reflective, extruded text, make it goaround in a circle with the text on the back side of the circle masked out so that the orbiting text appears to be disappearing behind the planet. 
OK, given that the above assumption is correct, I can see two ways to do this, but (so far as I can tell) each method seems to have its advantages and disadvantages:
1. I can apply the CC Cylinder effect to my text.
PROS:
- This effect has a very handy option to render the full cyclinder or just the outside or inside. I chose outside as I want the text to appear to rotate across the front of the planet.
- I can add a mask to hide some of the remaining visible text when needed.
- Some built-in lighting controls.
CON:
- No material options so I cannot add an environment layer to get those cool reflections that are really going to impress the client. (Yes, I am using the Ray-Traced 3D Renderer.)
2. I can apply the 3D Rotate Around Circle Animation Preset to my text.
PRO: - I have material and geometry options to make the cool reflections.
CON:
- No "Render Outside" option and I understand you cannot add a mask to a Ray-Traced Layer. (Correct?) I suppose I could render those 6 seconds to video and then mask that footage layer, but when the front text is right in front of the back text, it would be a really complex mask to have to make.
Here is what I am talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9FcD-bx-sg&feature=plcp
That boring flat white text that looks like it was cut out of paper is what I am trying to replace with something snazzier.
Any ideas, suggestions? Is there some other way to achieve this goal that i just don't know about yet?
I am using the latest version of After Effects CS6 on a 27" iMac, running OSX7.4.
Thanks!
--Carol 
Carol Gunn
Gunn Graphics
Austin, TX 78741
512-385-8818
www.gunngraphics.biz
www.linkedin.com/in/carolgunn

Answer 1

hey carol.
i think the solution that would give you both the results you want and would still be relatively simple to pull off would be to use AE's text tool with the preset you mentioned, and add an animator to the text, controlling the opacity of of the layers.
just synchronize the range selector of that animator to the rotation of the sentence, so that it would make letters fade in quickly coming around the curve, and fade out going back.
if you absolutely must have that splitting of "inside" and "outside", you can try to intersect a white copy of the 3D letters with a black solid along the same plane as the globe is, resulting in a white image of only the front letters, which you can use as a luma matte.
(you would probably also want to condense the alpha of the white letters before the intersection or you'll damage the edges of your letters after you apply the luma matte)